Borucki shines even as Blue Jays fall to Rays

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Rookie Ryan Borucki has displayed a lot of panache since he was called up to the majors by the Toronto Blue Jays in late June.

And the lefty knew he had quite a challenge on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre squaring off against the Tampa Bay Rays and their dominant left-handed pitcher, Blake Snell.

Snell is considered the front runner to win the Cy Young Award as the American League’s top pitcher and Borucki said he realized heading in he would have to be at his best to give his team a fighting chance.

Borucki was good – very good, in fact – but Snell was a bit more precise and, in most cases, that is the difference between winning and losing.

Snell earned his major-league-leading 21st victory, holding the Blue Jays to just three singles in 6 2/3 innings, which went a long way toward helping Tampa Bay (87-68) record a 5-2 win over Toronto (71-85) to earn a split in the four-game series.

Snell (21-5) had 11 strikeouts and lowered his American League-best earned-run average to 1.90

“Both of them were great, [Snell] was just a little bit better,” Toronto manager John Gibbon said of the starters. “There’s a good chance he’s going to win the Cy Young and there’s a reason. He’s pretty dominating.

Borucki (4-5) held Tampa Bay to two runs and three hits over seven innings, the fourth successive game he has allowed three or fewer hits.

Borucki was making his 16th major-league start on Sunday and was coming off an outstanding outing in Baltimore last Monday when he tossed eight shutout innings in a 5-0 Toronto win.

Borucki said that while he appreciated Snell’s accomplishments, he had tried to block that from his mind.

“I just go out there and try to pitch my game because you don’t know if he’s going to have a bad day or a good day,” Borucki said.

He was cruising along nicely through three innings, with six strikeouts and just one batter above the minimum when Tommy Pham led off the fourth with a single to left.

Pham stole second and scored on a double by Joey Wendle, which provided the Rays with a 1-0 lead.

Tampa Bay extended its lead to 2-0 in the sixth, which began with a one-out walk issued to Pham by Borucki.

Pham moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Matt Duffy, a rather unorthodox move considering it was the inning’s second out. But it worked out when C.J. Cron stroked a ground-rule double into right field, which brought Pham home.

But Borucki’s hard work became unravelled courtesy of the Toronto bullpen with a three-run Tampa Bay eighth. That started with a two-out home-run blast by Cron into the second deck in left off Toronto reliever Joe Biagini.

Exit Biagini and enter Jose Fernandez, who walked Wendle before serving up a two-run homer to Brandon Lowe.

With the score 5-0 and Snell safely stashed on the bench, the Blue Jays scratched out their only two runs in the eighth, the first on a ground out by Gurriel and the second on a hard-hit ball to left by Aledmys Diaz.

Gibbons said that Borucki has shown him a lot since his arrival.

“He can just pitch,” Gibbons said. “I think his breaking ball has gotten better since he’s been here. He knows what he’s doing, he can throw different things at different times.

“Today, he saw a lot of left-handers in that lineup so early on he was attacking pretty good with a really good breaking ball.”

On Monday, the Blue Jays welcome the Houston Astros for a three-game set, which concludes the home portion of Toronto’s season.

The game will be special for Toronto rookie shortstop Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who for the first time will get to face his older brother Yuli in a game.

The two siblings established a Major League Baseball record on Friday night when they became the first brothers to have multihomer games on the same day – Lourdes with two homers against the Rays and Yuli with two against the Los Angeles Angels.

The Blue Jays finish the year against the Rays with a weekend series in St. Petersburg, Fla.